MA Fashion Media and Communication

Course units

Stage 1: Explore  

Supports the transition to postgraduate level study through the following units: 

Stage 1 commences with the first two-day summit of the year, consisting of talks from industry experts from a wide range of disciplines, screenings and group discussions. The summit introduces and explores the central theme for the year and provides the conceptual and theoretical foundations for the practice-led units that follow. The summit also provides you with the opportunity to meet your cohorts as well network with some of the industry's leading practitioners and thinkers. 

Alongside the talks, the summit also acts as a showcase for the graduating year’s Masters Project work. 

Unit 1: Prototyping Practices (20 credits)  

Led by the key conceptual themes developed in the Stage 1 ‘Explore’ summit, and with a focus on the body, you will explore current design making methods, present-day digital media and communication discourse, and sensory-based technologies within the context of contemporary fashion media and communication practices.  

The unit is structured around a set of short ‘sprint’ assignments undertaken both collaboratively and independently in class and through independent creative practice. You will initiate a series of iterative and process-led prototypes that will investigate the potential use of emerging ‘extended reality’ technologies within a fashion media and communication context. 

Unit 2: Experiential Ecologies (40 credits)  

With a focus on the convergence of digital and physical environments, you will explore the transdisciplinary development of hybrid fashion experiences. The unit will introduce you to contemporary co-design methods and processes, as well as essential ideation, organisational and community management skills that are necessary for building complex omnichannel experiences.  

Over the course of the unit, you will develop a hands-on and reflective understanding of the dynamics of working within a multidisciplinary creative team as you explore how community-driven platforms, multi-player gaming environments, and physical interactions can be used to create richly textured fashion experiences. Working in small groups, you will develop a design concept for a hybrid fashion experience as well as critically situate it within a broader social, racial and technological context.    

On successful completion of these units you are eligible for the award of a Post Graduate Certificate (60 credits). 

Stage 2: Situate  

Positioning knowledge and skills gained in stage 1 to affirm your own interests and specific direction within an external professional context. 

Stage 2 commences with the second two-day summit of the year, consisting of talks from industry experts from a wide range of disciplines, screenings and group discussions. Stage 2’s summit builds on the conceptual and theoretical foundation established in stage 1 by situating it within a broader socio-technological and climate context that will define stage 2’s research and practice-based units. As a public facing event, the summit provides you with the valuable opportunity to network with some of the industry's leading practitioners and thinkers. 

Unit 3: Emergent Futures (40 credits) 

Led by the key conceptual themes developed in the Stage 2 ‘Situate’ summit, this unit focuses on systemic transformation and thought leadership. On this unit you will explore the potential roles fashion media and communication could play in response to present and near future planetary scale environmental, social, and technological challenges.   

You will be introduced to insight generation, strategic thinking, and speculative design as well as system technologies such as machine learning, the blockchain and biotech. Through a series of rapid sprints, and working in small groups, you will develop and present an insight report that addresses a real-world issue by responding to the potential implications of social, technological and environmental drivers. You will then produce and present a speculative design outcome that offers a compelling vision of an alternative future and will operate as a projective model of how to conceive and initiate systemic transformation within a fashion media and communication context.   

Elective Units  

In block 2, students will have an opportunity to take an elective unit. Individual unit descriptors can be found in the Electives Handbook. 

On successful completion of these units you are eligible for the award of a Post Graduate Diploma (120 credits). 

Stage 3: Integrate  

The culmination and incorporation of the knowledge and skills acquired throughout stages 1 and 2 which is expressed through the Masters Project 

Unit 5: The Masters’ Project (60 credits)*  

The Masters’ Project is the final stage of your course and is the is the culmination of your studies and provides you with a space to synthesise all the knowledge and skills you have gained on the course so far. Your project will be self-directed and you will negotiate the shape and direction of your project at the outset with your supervisor.  

This important final phase of your studies is where you will effectively communicate your work along with your ability to critically interrogate your practice with robust approaches to research and theoretical analysis. Upon completion of your project, you will have generated a high-level Masters’ quality piece of work that will showcase your practice, academic literacy and the professional standards that will act as a platform for your future career and professional development.  

On successful completion of the Masters Project unit you are eligible for the award of a Masters of Art (180 credits). The final award grading is based upon the results of the Masters Project only. 

Credit Framework 

The University of the Arts London Credit Framework equates 20 credits to 200 hours of learning time. 

Learning and teaching methods

Study is facilitated through regular activity briefs, sprints and reading tasks, workshops, peer and self-evaluation in group and individual tutorial feedback in both online and face-face format. Group workshops and seminars during the face-to-face study time support your engagement further.   
  
The supported development of cognitive skills such as problem solving, reflection, progress monitoring, and self-assessment, as well as affective skills such as curiosity, motivation, and resilience will further support independent learning. 

To achieve this, the programme of study will typically include:   

• Unit briefing and introduction;  
• Studio & workshop practice;  
• Enquiry-based learning;  
• Group on-line ‘orientation’ exercise;  
• Reading tasks;  
• Face-to-Face workshops, introducing different ways of locating, interrogating, and interpreting a number of theoretical models’  
• Team work;  
• Collaborative learning;  
• Independent learning;  
• Knowledge Exchange;  
• Expert talks;  
• Technical delivery;  
• Student presentations to tutors and peers;  
• Peer and external feedback;  
• Peer-to-Peer learning;  
• Tutorial facilitation/ evaluation related to team/ individual and cohort;  
• Blended Learning.  

Selection criteria

The course seeks to recruit students from diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and welcomes applications from mature students. 

The recruitment procedures fully comply with the Equal Opportunities Policy at UAL and all interviewers have undertaken Fairness and Equality in Student Selection training.

We are looking for students who demonstrate some of the following: 

• A clear academic interest in the study of fashion media and communication through an interdisciplinary approach
• Appropriate knowledge and skills commensurate with your planned entry into this post graduate level course
• A capacity to develop and undertake risk-taking speculative design in a range of communication disciplines, in particular using frontier technologies
• A willingness to operate in digital and physical realms, showing an awareness of cultural, social, political and climate debates
• An ability to work collaboratively and independently when required to successfully complete the programme of study
• An ability to engage in and contribute to critical discussion
• Demonstrate the necessary skill and fluency in your own design thinking and creative practice to benefit from and contribute to the course
• Possess appropriate levels of visual, written and verbal presentation